


Gitche Gumee

by BadWolfRose (BadWolf1988)



Category: Dog The Bounty Hunter
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Inspired by Music, Romance, body image issues, plus size character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 06:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13735512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadWolf1988/pseuds/BadWolfRose
Summary: A Joan Baez loving girl who's insecure about her size. A Gordon Lightfoot fan who likes her just the way that she is. This is the story of Tuesday and Dakota.





	Gitche Gumee

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This should really have to go without saying but I do NOT know nor do I own Dakota Chapman. If it was possible to own him, my younger sister would have put in a bid a long time ago.
> 
> Disclaimer II: I own none of the song lyrics used in this story. They just happen to get stuck in my head on a regular basis. So to reiterate, I do not own the rights to: ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ by Gordan Lightfoot, ‘Birmingham Sunday’ by Joan Baez, ‘I Am The Walrus’ by the Beatles, ‘Learn to be Lonely’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, or ‘Man in the Mirror’ by Michael Jackson.
> 
> Author's Note: All historical references in this story are accurate to my (and Google's) knowledge.
> 
> Author's Note II: I had originally meant to post this back around Halloween 2017 but I never got around to typing it up.
> 
> Author's Note III: People born between 1995 and 2012 are part of the iGen or Gen Z generation. They are not millennials as a lot of people mistake them for. People born between 1980 and 1994 are millennials. The newest generation, Gen Alpha, started in 2013 and goes until 2025. Yes, while looking up what generation people born in 1995 were I got curious about the generations of all the different kids in my family and got sidetracked a bit. On the plus side, I learned all of the above information. – (Beta): So we really are millennials then! (Rose's Response to Beta): We were the last generation before technology took over. We were porchlight kids. To those who don't know, that means our moms flashed the porchlight in order to get us inside every day when we were kids because computers and video games weren't as popular back then.

Another bonfire party on the beach, how typical. I deserted my so-called friends as fast as I could and walked the half mile to my favorite stretch of deserted beach. My only real friend, Cobie, had ditched me not long after we had arrived and no one else was likely to miss me. Why was high school so cliché? The only difference between this party and every other Saturday was the fact that tonight was Halloween. This meant that half the cheerleaders had shown up to the party dressed as slutty cats and one or two guys from the football team were wearing fangs. It was like being on the set of a bad 90's high school movie starring Freddie Prinze Jr.

I took a seat in the sand and pulled out my phone. Going to my favorite playlist, I hit play before setting my phone in the sand beside me.

“ _The men in the forest,_

_They once asked of me,_

_How many blackberries grew in the blue sea?_

_And I asked them right back,_

_With a tear in my eye,_

_How many dark ships in the forest?”_

“Joan Baez, nice.”

I looked up to find Dakota Chapman standing in front of me. I knew who he was because he was Cobie's older brother. At twenty-two, he was five years older than me and I had had a crush on him since I was nine and had discovered that boys did not, in fact, have cooties and I wouldn't need to get a shot if I touched one.

“I'm impressed.” I nodded approvingly. I really was. Not many young people knew who Joan Baez even was.

“Cobie drag you to that party back there again?” Dakota took a seat beside me as he pulled out his own phone.

Dakota and I didn't really hang out so I was surprised that he seemed to know about Cobie's habit of dragging me to parties that I really didn't want to go to. “Yeah,” I chuckled. “He's trying to hook up with a girl from his homeroom class. What are you doing out here anyway? Aren't you a little old for high school parties?”

“I am,” he nodded and laughed. “That's why I'm here and not back at the boozefest. Cobie called me. He said he was taking off with some chick named Lola and he wanted to make sure that you had a ride home.”

Oh, how nice of Cobie... NOT! That little po'o 'olohaka knew that I had a crush on his older brother. He had done this on freakin' purpose! Lolo kanapapki!

“Thanks, Dakota,” I turned and smiled at him. I turned my music player off as _Birmingham Sunday_ ended.

“I'm just curious.” Dakota turned his phone on and went to his own music player. “Since you know Joan Baez, do you know this song?” He hit play.

“ _I am he,_

_As you are he,_

_As you are me,_

_And we are all together.”_

_See how they run,_

_Life pigs from a gun,_

_See how they fly,_

_I'm crying.”_

The psychedelic song was easily recognizable to me. Dakota obviously had kick-ass taste in music. “ _I Am The Walrus_ by the Beatles.” Since I was nervous and I wanted to spend a little more time with my best friend's sexy older brother, I decided to turn this into a game. “Alright, my turn.” He paused the song and I searched my playlist for a song that I thought would stump him.

“ _Never dreamed out in the world,_

_There are arms to hold you._

_You've always known,_

_Your heart was on its own._

_So laugh in your loneliness,_

_Child of the wilderness...”_

I had skipped halfway through the song because I knew the title appeared in the first verse. I didn't expect him to get it either way but I wasn't about to make it easy for him.

“ _Learn to be Lonely_ , the 2004 _Phantom of the Opera_ soundtrack. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and was sung by Minnie Driver.” It didn't sound like he had even had to think about his answer. He just knew it, like everyone knew that two plus two equaled four.

“You know _Phantom_?” I asked in disbelief as I paused the song.

“I go every year when the show comes to the islands,” he replied as he scrolled his playlist. “Now, everyone knows M.J. but only real fans know this song.”

“ _As I turn up the collar on my favorite winter coat,_

_This wind is blowin' my mind._

_I see the kids in the street,_

_Without enough to eat._

_Who am I to be blind,_

_Pretending not to see their needs?”_

“ _Man in the Mirror_. It's one of my all-time favorite songs.” Dakota had gotten a million times hotter to me for playing it... if that was even possible. I didn't know many other members of the iGen generation who were true Michael Jackson fans (liking _Thriller_ didn't count as being a fan).

Dakota got to his feet and held out his hand to me. “What time is your curfew?” he asked as I used his offered hand to pull myself to my feet.

“As long as I do my homework and my grades don't slip, my dad doesn't really care what time I get home.” Father of the Year my old man was not. Truth be told, he probably wouldn't notice if I didn't come home at all. I got a D on a math test however and he hit the freakin' roof.

“My place is just a little ways up the beach. Do you wanna come and hang out and listen to some music for awhile before I take you home?” Dakota shoved his hands into the pockets of his baggy jeans.

“Why?” I blurted out like a hupo. Okay, I had not meant that to come out like that. I really didn't. I just didn't understand why someone like Dakota Chapman would want to spend time with a girl like me, Tuesday (blame my parents, folks) Alana. I was the chubby girl that everyone hung around with because I was ‘sweet’ and ‘smart’. Translation: I was a good person to ask for homework help. Cobie was my only real friend... and he was his own special kind of weird.

“Because I'm enjoying hanging out with you and I wasn't ready to take you home just yet.” Dakota gave me a strange look.

I blushed and reached up and tucked some of my long and curly (boring) black hair behind my ear. “Sure, that sounds like fun.” Had any woman ever turned Dakota down? I highly doubted it.

As we started our short walk, I shot Dakota a weird look of my own when he reached out and took my hand, interlocking our fingers.

We reached the gate that led into his backyard and he held it open for me before following me onto the lanai of the small bungalow. I was surprised when instead of taking me inside, he easily laid down in the hammock that faced the water. How did he do that? Every time I tried to get in a hammock, I usually did three full rotations before ending up flat on my ass.

Dakota held out his hand to me. “Come here.”

Whoa. He wanted me to join him? Was he not aware of my size? “Are you nuts? I'm too fat. I'll break the damn thing.”

“Fat?” Dakota rolled his eyes. “Okkaay... we'll get your head examined in the morning but for right now come and join me, beautiful.”

Okay, my resolve broke when he called me 'beautiful'. That wasn't something I was called every day. Praying that I wouldn't break anything, I carefully laid down beside him. Because I was trying carefully to avoid touching him, I almost flipped us by laying as far away from him as I could. Dakota wasn't having this and pulled me to lay on his chest. One arm wrapped around my waist while he held his phone in his other hand. Once again a song that I knew well drifted in the Hawaiian autumn night air.

“ _The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down,_

_Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'._

_The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead,_

_When the skies of November turn gloomy...”_

“I love this song,” I whispered into his chest as the arm that was wrapped around me tightened a little.

“I know,” he chuckled. “You always used to play it when you were over hanging out with Cobie when I still lived at home.”

“ _The ship was the pride of the American side,_

_Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin._

_As the freighters go, it was bigger than most,_

_With a crew and captain well seasoned...”_

“You know, I love Gordon Lightfoot but he got something wrong. It's not 'Gitche Gumee', it's 'Gichi Gami' in the Ojibwe language.” Dakota must have sensed that I was nervous and didn't know what to say so he attempted to lighten the mood. All he succeeded in doing was depressing me. Tonight I had learned that not only was Dakota hot but he had the same taste in music as me and was apparently intelligent. He was everything that I wanted in a man wrapped up in a nice and neat older than me and off-limits package. Life really sucked sometimes.

“ _The Captain wired in he had water comin' in,_

_And the good ship and crew was in peril._

_And later that night when his lights went out of sight,_

_Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...”_

“Did you know that the exact cause of the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck isn't known but a lot of researchers think she was capsized by rogue waves?” I was just babbling some of my famous shipwreck knowledge because I was hella nervous and didn't know what else to say. “There's this legend on Lake Superior, where the Fitz went down, the legend of the three sisters. They are this trio of monster waves that come out of nowhere. I think they were just proven to be real by scientists a few years ago.”

“I did know that. Did you know the captain of the boat that was tailing the Fitz reported feeling at least two distinct waves that almost capsized him? The waves were headed in the direction of the Fitz and were felt right before the other ship reported seeing her lights go out.” Dakota countered my knowledge with some of his own.

“ _In the musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,_

_In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral._

_The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times,_

_For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.”_

I picked my head up a little to look at him. “You know the actual history?”

“I love maritime history and the Edmund Fitzgerald is my all-time favorite shipwreck.” Dakota reached up and brushed some of my hair out of my face, making the hammock sway a little.

“I want to go to school and study history and oceanography,” I admitted. The amount of knowledge I have about the Titanic alone was probably at an unhealthy level. I was the girl my friends ‘forgot’ to invite to 'Titanic' viewing parties because I spent the whole film pointing out historical inaccuracies.

“Hawaii's a great place to get both of those degrees,” Dakota said as he shut his phone off and set it carefully on the ground beside us. Were we done listening to music? Was it time for me to go home now? I hoped not. I was really enjoying my time with Dakota.

“I was thinking more like Boston.” I worked my ass off to get grades good enough to get me into Harvard.

“Damn, sweetheart. You're going to make me follow you all the way to Massachusetts? It snows there in the winter. I guess if that's what my girl wants – ”

His girl? “Wait, what?” I sat up so fast that I ended up flipping us both onto the ground... with me on top of Dakota.

I scrambled to get off of him but he wrapped both arms around my waist and held me tightly to him. “Where are you going?”

“I'm too heavy,” I mumbled. I was 5'6 and 185 lbs. I knew I wasn't light.

Dakota scoffed. “Shut up. You are not. I like having you on top of me.”

Okay... had he meant that comment to sound so dirty?

“Dakota, what the hell is going on?” I was completely befuddled by his words and actions. I knew it was Halloween and that strange things tended to happen but this was too strange... even for All Hallows Eve.

“I like you, Tuesday. I thought that was pretty obvious.” Dakota gently pushed me off of him and sat up so he could lean against the wall of the house.

“You can't like me.” Sitting on my knees, I was facing him and shaking my head.

“Why not?” he challenged.

“You're older than me, popular, and good looking.” I ticked off on my fingers. “I'm seventeen, people only pretend to be my friends so I'll do their homework and... I'm fat.” Why sugar coat the obvious? I was a big girl.

Dakota reached out and grabbed my wrist. He gently tugged until I got the hint and crawled closer until I was sitting on my knees between his legs. “I'm not that much older than you and your dad likes me.” Probably because my dad knew that, like himself, Dakota was a bail bondsman and had been since he was eighteen. Heck, his grandfather was Duane 'Dog' Chapman himself. “I don't see the age difference being a problem. I genuinely like you as a person, Tuesday. I don't know any other girl who could put up with being my brother's best friend and not kill him. You've always had his back. I don't know anyone, male or female, who knows as much as you do about music and ships. You're awesome.... and you're not fat. You're voluptuous. There's a difference, sweetheart. Believe it or not, there are a lot of men who prefer women built like you... and I'm one of them. I don't want that perfect _Playboy Playmate_ looking kind of girl that my dad likes. I want a real woman with real curves... just the way God made her. You fit that bill for me, Tuesday. I've had a thing for you for over a year. Cobie didn't ditch you for Lola tonight. Those two have been together for over a month already. He ditched you because I asked him to.”

I couldn't wrap my head around what he was saying. Even in the cheesiest 1980's John Hughes rom-com, the chubby girl never got the guy. The dorky best friend, maybe, but never the leading man. “Tonight was a set up so you could get me alone?”

“Yeah.” He reached out and took my hand and started playing with my fingers. “Even though I know that you like me too, I didn't think you'd say 'yes' if I asked you out.”

I wouldn't have. I would have suspected that he was trying to pull some kind of prank on me. Wait a minute... “How do you know that I like you?” Way to deny it, Tuesday.

“My little brother has a big mouth, sweetheart.”

“You know,” I growled menacingly, “I think I'm finally contemplating killing Cobie.” That freakin' hubo had totally betrayed me!

“In his defense, he only told me because he knows that I'm in love with you. He caught me checking you out when we all went to the beach over the summer and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I had started listening to all your favorite songs.”

Cobie had known that Dakota loved me for months and he hadn't said anything to me? Hold the freakin' phone... DAKOTA LOVED ME?!

“I'm not really experienced with this kind of thing, Dakota,” I admitted. Tears were starting to obstruct my vision and as handsome as Dakota was, he was also decidedly blurry looking.

Dakota smiled and reached up and cupped my cheek in his hand. “How about we start with a kiss and go from there?”

“I… okay,” I whispered and let him coax me closer. When I felt his soft, gentle lips on mine, a few teardrops escaped down my face as Dakota pulled me closer and I tasted his favorite pineapple flavored gum on his lips. Okay, fine. Cobie could live... this time.

 

**FIVE YEARS LATER**

“Dakota, this has to be the best way to spend Halloween ever... taking a dive down to a real shipwreck!” I was bouncing excitedly on his lap, where I was nested happily as I had become accustomed to over the years. The small submersible slowly descended down towards the bottom of Lake Superior. I had no clue how he had done it but my longtime boyfriend had managed to arrange a dive down to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald for our anniversary. “Best. Present. Ever.”

“This isn't your present, sweetheart,” Dakota whispered in my ear as the submersible arrived at the wreck site. He slipped a simple diamond ring on my finger. “Marry me, Tuesday?”

“YES!” I turned and kissed him just as the exterior lights lit up the ghostly wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

It wouldn't be until we were back on the surface that I realized that he had had the words ' GITCHE GUMEE' inscribed on the inside of my ring.

  
  


_ **FINIS** _

 

**_ [MY WEBSITE](http://www.badwolfrose.com) _ **


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